Most of us have the habit of searching for our names on Google Search. It is a metric (according to us) to see whether we are popular and the first time we find a link about us on the first page, we become overwhelmed and start telling our friends about our newly attained popularity. I have been searching for my name (Bijit Sharma) from the days I started using Google. Back then I never found my name listed and at times it really felt bad. But how will Google know of you if you do not have a web presence; and truly speaking at that point of time I had a scarce web presence with only a Gmail account and an Orkut account. Gradually I created my Facebook account, Twitter account, launched this blog (SiteOnn); launched my YouTube channel and created accounts on various social networking and social bookmarking sites. I did not do this to make my name appear on Google Search; actually all these happened as per my needs in a course of 4 to 5 years and today when I search for my name on Google, the stats I find are really amazing (according to me).
The Analysis
When I search for my name (Bijit Sharma) on Google, on the first page I find a total of 11 links. Let me list them down for you to get a better understanding of what I am saying.
Link 1. It links to someone else Facebook profile
Link 2. My Facebook Profile
Link 3. My YouTube Channel
Link 4. My GooglePlus profile
Link 5. It links to someone else LinkedIn profile
Link 6. My Bloggers.com profile
Link 7. Image Results for Bijit Sharma (out of a total of 21 images above the fold, 13 link to me)
Link 8. My Pinterest profile
Link 9. My Twitter Profile
Link 10. My SlideShare Profile
Link 11. Video Results (link to one of my videos on YouTube and below is a hyperlink saying “More videos for bijit sharma »“ where videos uploaded by me are listed first).
If you check this out, the results may shuffle with time depending upon your geographical location. But the main scenario will be the same. The results obtained for the first page clearly show that pages linked to me appear more than anyone else. It doesn’t mean that I spend quality time on each site, although I log into Facebook 20 times a day, I use Twitter 10 times a day, GooglePlus once a day; I open my Bloggers.com only when I receive any notification and I haven’t logged into my SlideShare account for the past 5 months. Also, now I don’t find time to visit Pinterest since pinning eats up a lot of time and also I have not been uploading any new videos on YouTube.
Now let me tell you what the results on the second and third pages are. Out of the 10 search results on the second page, 7 link to me, prominent among them being a YouTube link, my Rediff page, my indiblogger profile, digg profile and Quora profile. The third page links to me via 6 results, prominent among them being a link to my picasa web album, YouTube links, my StumbleUpon profile and the About Me page on this blog.
Analyzing these results I can say that if I had a LinkedIn account and a MySpace account, the first page would have consisted links linked only to me. Another thing worth keeping in mind is that the more common your name, the more better content you have to produce to be on the first page; e.g., a man named “John Smith” may find it difficult to be on the first page of Google as there are more than 45,000 people in the United States itself named “John Smith”. But a man named “Tom Thomson” can find his name listed on the first page of Google search with ease as there are less than 20 people in the United States named “Tom Thomson”. The number of people would not change significantly when we consider the global presence of the name, as these are primarily U.S. names.
When I searched for the name Bijit Sharma, I found 2 exact matches on Twitter, 2 exact matches on People finding websites and 17 exact matches on Facebook. I do not know how many people in the world possess the name Bijit Sharma, but I do not think that the name is as common as “John Smith” neither is as rare as “Tom Thomson”. Moreover all people would not have a web presence as Internet penetration is not universal. Anyways, I compete with at least 17 people possessing the same name I do to appear on the first page of Google Search.
So how to get your name on Google Search
The advice from me is simple and plain; create accounts (if you do not have one) on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn and Pinterest for social networking and on Digg and Delicious for social bookmarking. Create a YouTube channel and upload videos; create a SlideShare account and upload PowerPoint presentations; upload photos to Picasa Web Album and Flickr; write on Squidoo and Hubpages, join forums, comment on blogs with your name mentioned and at last buy a custom domain and create a blog or website. Link each of your social networking sites to your website and vice-versa; also write a compelling “About Me” page mentioning your real name. After launching the site, create a Facebook Fan Page and a Facebook Group with the same name as that of your site. At last the main thing that will make you an undisputed leader for searches of your name on Google or any other search engine is that if you decide to buy the custom domain matching with your exact name; e.g., bijitsharma.com. Another interesting thing worth mentioning is that this very post contains the name “Bijit Sharma” many times, so this will also rank high when searched for the same.
Thanks for the auspicious writeup. It in truth was once a amusement account it. Look complex to more delivered agreeable from you! However, how could we be in contact?
NICE TRICK